Toronto

Justin, Jeff, Andrew and I are going to try the mini-Spingold again this year. We suffered a heart breaking loss in this even in 2008, losing in the semifinals by 3 imps after leading every session until this one. I leave for Toronto on Saturday.

Resolute!

We haven't posted much this year as our travel has been necessarily curtailed a bit with two kids under two. I hope to post more in the new year!

Lots of Fish

Thursday 11/8/2007

Today we started out by heading North to Nago and the large aquarium theme park they have there. The aquarium is one of the biggest in the world and has some HUGE fish. Take a look at some of the awesome pictures on Flickr. We all agreed it was the greatest aquarium we had ever seen. The walls of the aquarium were 2 feet thick clear acrylic. The park also had a neat Ryukyu island style village with Okinawa style houses. At one of the houses they had three old ladies dressed in Okinawan kimonos. They offered us refreshments and we chatted a bit about Okinawan ancestor worship. One of the ladies was showing some girls from mainland how to play the Okinawan shamisen that is like a 3 string guitar.

When we were finished in Nago we headed toward Yomitan and its famous look out spot. When we got there we immediately saw the giant lighthouse. The view was cool and we saw some ppeople surfing. The shore looked treacherous with dried sharp coral but no one appeared to get hurt. We drove a little ways into Okinawa city and Amber had Wendy's for dinner. I decided on the beef bowl from the Japanese fast food place next door. Afterwards, we walked down Gate 2 street and then headed back to the hotel. This was to be our last night in Onna village.

Beach and Barbecue

Wednesday 11/7/2007

Today we started the day out with a mostly Japanese style breakfast. Amber was glad she preate some cereal in the room. We went for a short walk along the beach and then decided it was time to do some laundry. For the most part the Japanese washers did a good job but the driers were not as up to the job. We had to dry must things twice. While the machines did most of the work we sat on the cloud covered beach and alternated between watching the waves, reading, and looking at the Japanese riding jet skis. I couldn't convince Amber to rent a jet ski. I guess I scarred her for life in Utah when I dumped us in the lake after promising her she wouldn't get wet.

After finishing the laundry we drove through Yomitan village where I had lived and had lunch at Shakey's all you can eat and drink pizza buffet. We spent the afternoon on the cloudy beach. The water was warm and the wind didn't blow much until after we finished swimming. I really enjoyed the day and I'm pretty determined to go to the beach sometime when its sunny. We concluded our day with a tour of Okinawa City. We finished at the all you can eat Ghengis Kahn restaurant where one gets all you can eat style Mongolian barbecue. It was fabulous.

There and back again

Tuesday 11/6/2007

We started the day by checking out of our hotel in Shuri. We drove up the east side of Okinawa using the back roads. We stopped briefly at the Nakagusku castle ruins where one can see the Pacific Ocean on the right and the China Sea on the left. Our trip up the island took us from sandy coastal beaches through tiny mountain passes and back again. We eventually arrived at point Hedo. This tip-top northern most point of the island has amazing cliffs and gorgeous, violent surf. Even though we were hundreds of feet above the water, we could feel the icey, salty spray as the waves dashed into the bottom of the cliffs. We enjoyed a lunch of Okinawan soba with a little rack of ribs on top.

We then drove down the west side of Okinawa until we reached our hotels in Onna village. I was really impressed with the gorgeous ocean view from our hotel room. Amber was less impressed with the tiny roach n the bathroom. The room ended up being o.k. and we didn't see any more of Mr. Roaches freinds. The room was part western and part japanese. Amber and I even tried on the kimono like yugata (sleeping robes).

We concluded the evening with a great Chinese meal of fried rice, peppers and beef, spring rolls, pot stickers, and stir fried vegetables with shrimp and noodles. It was a fun day, but we spent too much time in the car. The Okinawans always say driving that much (2 hours each way) requires several breaks for rest and snacks. I guess they could never drive 10 hours to Gillette.

A Descent Into Okinawan Culture

Monday 11/5/2007

We started out by visiting Shuri castle. I once saw Japan's two grand champion sumo wrestlers do a kind of exhibition at Shuri castle. Today, the only sumo like visitors were Ian and I. The castle was the capital of the independent kingdom of the Ryukyu islands until it was taken over by the Japanese in the late 19th century. We then traveled to the Souther most parts of Okinawa, driving on the left hand side of the road (most of the time). We visited Gokusendo a large underground cave about a quarter of a mile long. There were stalagtites wider than me and stalagmites taller than Amber. We visited several exhibitions of Okinawan arts and crafts. Glass blowing, sugar making, beer brewing, fruit growing, and pot kilning were all viewable. We tried a sample of the many fruits of Okinawa including starfruit, dragon fruit, oranges, pineapple, mango, passion fruit, and bananas. We did not sample, however, the strong liquor with snake venom additives.

The last exhibition was a snake museum with a focus on Okinawa's world renowned venomous snake, the Habu. In on demonstration the presenter bumped a Habu with a balloon filled with cold water. It did not react. When he bumped it next with a balloon with warm water, it struck it fast and the balloon popped. Amber jumped! The snakes speed was impressive.

We finished of our souther sight seeing with a visit to peace memorial park and war museum. The grounds were beautiful and the marble slabs with the names of civilians and military mebers that gave there lives lent a somber note to the air. The ocean view was spectacular.
We went to dinner at CoCo Curry a restaurant both Ian and I had enjoyed while missionaries. The food was better than the memory. Amber was a new CoCo Curry convert. The mission is over, but the work continues.

Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Sunday 11/4/2007

We woke up just before the crack of dawn to prepare to get to our flight on time. We have been staying in Kyoto. Our Flight from the US flew into Osaka, and we need to be in Kobe, Japan by 9:30 A.M. for our flight to Okinawa. We planned everything out and it looked doable, but the timing was tight. We woke up at 5:30, checked out of our hotel, and caught the shinkaisetsu, or rapid train, to the Kobe Sanomiya station. We took ab above ground “portline” monorail to the Kobe Airport. We arrived about 8:30 A.M. And the airport was empty. It took some time getting checked in as the airport staff weren't familiar with the necessary steps to get their computer to acknowledge United's ticketless travel.

Security was a breeze compared to the US. No shoe removal, clear bag for liquids, or long tedious waits were necessary. Security was frindly and appeared, at least, happy to be there. We sat down to wait to board and by 9:00 A.M there were about 4 people including us waiting for the plane. By 9:15 there were over a 100 people. The Japanese clearly do not arrive an hour ahead of time. The flight to Okinawa was smooth but the island was mostly cloud covered.
When we deplaned the humidity and temperature increase was immediately noticeable. We took a cab to our hotel and I got my first sight of Okinawa in over ten years. There were a lot of changes but as we went from the airport through two of my old areas I saw some apartments the doors of which I remember knocking. The Miyako hotel is where my parents stayed when they picked me up ten years ago. Nothing has been changed since and its feeling its age a bit.

We went down to the international street called Kokusai Dori and had makudonarudo for lunch. Amber thought it tasted the same in Japan as it does in the U.S. We wondered the markets a bit and saw everything for sale from tourists trinkets to pig heads, to blue lobsters, to skinned fish. We met Ian at the hotel at 6 P.M. We walked the Shuri area looking for an Okinawa noodle shop i remembered. We couldn't find it, and ended up taking the monorail back down to Kokusai Dori and ate at a taco rice shop.

When we were in the market a shopkeeper lady asked if we ate pig's ears in America. I said I didn't think so, and she laughed exclaiming, “Hah, all you probably eat in America is steak.” I hope you all enjoy your steak tonight!